Nyobolt’s electric sports car shows 5-minute fast charging function in action

For sports cars, small and light is the ideal. For electric vehicles, this is difficult to achieve due to heavy batteries, but British company Nyobolt claims to have the solution.

Nyobolt has developed a battery technology that enables ultra-fast charging, which the startup believes will eliminate the need for large battery packs. If drivers can charge quickly enough, they can get by with smaller packs, the thinking goes.

To prove his point, Nyobolt commissioned a prototype electric sports car from Callum, the design firm of former Jaguar design chief Ian Callum. Nyobolt says the prototype’s 35 kWh battery pack is compact enough to allow for a curb weight of 2,750 pounds, just 100 pounds less than the original Lotus Elise-based Tesla Roadster.

Prototype of the electric sports car Nyobolt

Nyobolt unveiled the electric sports car and charging technology last year, and now it’s hitting the road. The startup says this prototype will “advance real-world testing of the technology and allow OEMs to experience Nyobolt’s ultra-fast charging technology firsthand.”

A quoted charge time of 10-80% in under five minutes means the Nyobolt pack is charging at around 350kW for much of the time. Nyobolt says the first four minutes of charging the pack – on a CCS port – is maxed out at a constant current of 500 amps, adding 120 miles of WLTP range in that time (equivalent to around 100 miles on the EPA test cycle).

At high charging rates, there is usually a concern that the battery cells will wear out, but Nyobolt aims to solve this with niobium oxide anode materials in its low-impedance lithium-ion cells. The company says the 24.5Ah cells have undergone fast-charge cycles equivalent to more than 600,000 miles of use.

Prototype of the electric sports car Nyobolt

In this application, a battery cooling circuit includes a radiator and an AC compressor/condenser, keeping the battery temperature at no more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Nyobolt says production of its battery cells could begin in small quantities within a year, allowing for 1,000 packs in 2025. The startup also claims to be in talks with eight different automakers about using its technology in high-performance electric vehicles.